Lawrence Weinstein, cofounder of Harvard’s Writing Center and director of the writing center at Bentley University, wrote Grammar for a Full Life: How the Ways We Shape a Sentence Can Limit or Enlarge Us. This is a writing book that explores not just the best ways to write, but how those methods are connected to…
Authors can’t do everything. What should they hire others to do for them? Assuming you’re working with a publisher rather than self-publishing, here’s a list, ranging from tasks you really shouldn’t outsource to those you probably ought to. Do this yourself. Here’s what you can’t or shouldn’t delegate. You could outsource these tasks, but don’t…
People think profound advice demands sweeping generalizations. “Think before speaking.” “Build habits systematically.” “Avoid passive voice.” These are fine. But generalizations piled upon generalizations rapidly become tedious. Specifics are what keep your reader reading and relating. So be specific. People think it’s mundane to cite details. The opposite is true: the more grounded your prose…
It happens to all of us. We write a few paragraphs, a few pages, a chapter and then say “Ah, this isn’t working at all.” The whole purpose of planning is to avoid this wasted work. Planners waste less prose, while pantsers (seat-of-the-pants writers) waste lots of prose. But there’s always some waste. Sure, the…
If you often sit down to write and feel frustrated, maybe you need to develop a new habit: writing away from the keyboard. And no, I don’t mean writing on paper or your phone. I mean writing in your head. Writing is problem-solving Writing is a puzzle. What’s the big idea? How do you start?…
Every editor has had this experience: deep into a manuscript, you find yourself reading a familiar passage. Sure enough, it duplicates content that was earlier in the manuscript. Don’t just delete it. Ask yourself why it’s there, and use that knowledge to make the manuscript better. Why writers repeat themselves All writers repeat information in…
Business book chapters are made out of ideas, stories, research, argumentation, and advice. To be readable, you need to maximize the stories and advice. Very simple: look at the chapter draft you wrote. Measure the number of words dedicated to each type of element: Ideas and frameworks. Principles you use to make your points. Stories….
Nonfiction books should start with a bang. Introductions are boring. Ergo, don’t start with an introduction. Despite the logic of this, many business and nonfiction writers start their books with an introduction. They either think it’s required, or fall victim to the fallacy that, having created a book, they need to somehow explain it. Why…
WordPress includes a linking feature missing from every other text-editing application. They all ought to copy it. In 2018, Automattic, the parent company of the blogging platform WordPress, debuted the block-based editor Gutenberg for authoring blog posts. People hated it, but it made sense — advanced bloggers were building blogs out of blocks anyway. By…